Understanding the meaning of intercultural competence from the perspective of students who participated in a global service learning program
Yao-Yi Fu, Associate Professor, Indiana University [yafu@iupui.edu]
Keywords: Intercultural competence, Kenya, tourism development
Conference track: Global community engagement and comparative studies
Format: Research/Scholarly paper
Summary
This study adopts an intercultural competence instrument developed by Deardorff (2010) in an international service learning course that took place in Kenya. Students and faculty traveled to the Rift Valley in Kenya and stayed there for three weeks. The course involved lectures, class discussions, field trips, and research activities that resulted in a tourism development project for the Rift Valley. The main service learning component of the course was the tourism development project for the region, which was a collaboration between our group and Moi University’s tourism faculty and graduate students in Kenya.
Students’ self-evaluations from the instrument produced rich data that help to clarify the meaning of intercultural competence from their perspective. Their written explanations of each intercultural competencies show that there is some variation in terms of how they interpreted the 15 knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) constructs of competence. For instance, “respect” was viewed in two different ways by the students. They referred to it mostly as an acceptance or acknowledgement of Kenya’s culture and way of life. Few statements referred to it as a gesture of greeting, hospitality or friendship. Another finding of this study is that greater improvement of intercultural competence was found in students who had less experience with traveling or living abroad than student who had more experience abroad prior to the trip.
This study contributed to the current body of literature by testing the instrument developed by Deardorff (2010). It was found that the instrument helps to gauge students’ development of intercultural competence. The research design of this study also identifies meaning of the competencies from students’ perspective, and it also confirms that the current KSA elements of competence can be viewed differently by students.
References
Battistoni, R. (2006). Civic engagement: A broad perspective. In K. Kecskes (Ed.), Engaging departments: Moving faculty culture from private to public and from individual to collective focus for the common good (pp. 11–26). Bolton, MA: Anker.
Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Creswell, J. W. (1994). Research design: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Deardorff, D. K. (2010). Intercultural competence in higher education and intercultural dialogue. In S. Bergan & H. Land (Eds.), Speaking across borders: The role of higher education in furthering intercultural dialogue (pp. 87–99). Strasbourg, France: Council of Europe.
Enos, S., & Morton, K. (2003). Developing a theory and practice of campus-community partnerships. In B. Jacoby & Associates (Eds.), Building partnerships for service-learning (pp. 20–41). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Giles, D. E., Jr. (2010). Journey to service-learning research: Agendas, accomplishments, and aspirations. In J. Keshen, B. Holland, & B. Moely (Eds.), Research for what?: Making engaged scholarship matter (pp. 203–221). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Jacoby, B. (2003). Building service-learning partnerships for the future. In B. Jacoby & Associates (Eds.), Building partnerships for service-learning (pp. 314–337). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Lincoln, Y., & Guba, E. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. London: SAGE.
Saldana, J. (2009). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Saltmarsh, J., Hartley, M., & Clayton, P. H. (2009). Democratic engagement white paper. Boston, MA: New England Resource Center for Higher Education.
Teddlie, C., & Yu, F. (2008). Different sampling techniques for mixed methods studies. In V. L. Plano Clark & J. W. Creswell (Eds.), The mixed methods reader (pp. 199–228). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
To access materials from this session please click on the file link(s) below:
Yao-Yi Fu, Associate Professor, Indiana University [yafu@iupui.edu]
Keywords: Intercultural competence, Kenya, tourism development
Conference track: Global community engagement and comparative studies
Format: Research/Scholarly paper
Summary
This study adopts an intercultural competence instrument developed by Deardorff (2010) in an international service learning course that took place in Kenya. Students and faculty traveled to the Rift Valley in Kenya and stayed there for three weeks. The course involved lectures, class discussions, field trips, and research activities that resulted in a tourism development project for the Rift Valley. The main service learning component of the course was the tourism development project for the region, which was a collaboration between our group and Moi University’s tourism faculty and graduate students in Kenya.
Students’ self-evaluations from the instrument produced rich data that help to clarify the meaning of intercultural competence from their perspective. Their written explanations of each intercultural competencies show that there is some variation in terms of how they interpreted the 15 knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) constructs of competence. For instance, “respect” was viewed in two different ways by the students. They referred to it mostly as an acceptance or acknowledgement of Kenya’s culture and way of life. Few statements referred to it as a gesture of greeting, hospitality or friendship. Another finding of this study is that greater improvement of intercultural competence was found in students who had less experience with traveling or living abroad than student who had more experience abroad prior to the trip.
This study contributed to the current body of literature by testing the instrument developed by Deardorff (2010). It was found that the instrument helps to gauge students’ development of intercultural competence. The research design of this study also identifies meaning of the competencies from students’ perspective, and it also confirms that the current KSA elements of competence can be viewed differently by students.
References
Battistoni, R. (2006). Civic engagement: A broad perspective. In K. Kecskes (Ed.), Engaging departments: Moving faculty culture from private to public and from individual to collective focus for the common good (pp. 11–26). Bolton, MA: Anker.
Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Creswell, J. W. (1994). Research design: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Deardorff, D. K. (2010). Intercultural competence in higher education and intercultural dialogue. In S. Bergan & H. Land (Eds.), Speaking across borders: The role of higher education in furthering intercultural dialogue (pp. 87–99). Strasbourg, France: Council of Europe.
Enos, S., & Morton, K. (2003). Developing a theory and practice of campus-community partnerships. In B. Jacoby & Associates (Eds.), Building partnerships for service-learning (pp. 20–41). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Giles, D. E., Jr. (2010). Journey to service-learning research: Agendas, accomplishments, and aspirations. In J. Keshen, B. Holland, & B. Moely (Eds.), Research for what?: Making engaged scholarship matter (pp. 203–221). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Jacoby, B. (2003). Building service-learning partnerships for the future. In B. Jacoby & Associates (Eds.), Building partnerships for service-learning (pp. 314–337). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Lincoln, Y., & Guba, E. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. London: SAGE.
Saldana, J. (2009). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Saltmarsh, J., Hartley, M., & Clayton, P. H. (2009). Democratic engagement white paper. Boston, MA: New England Resource Center for Higher Education.
Teddlie, C., & Yu, F. (2008). Different sampling techniques for mixed methods studies. In V. L. Plano Clark & J. W. Creswell (Eds.), The mixed methods reader (pp. 199–228). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
To access materials from this session please click on the file link(s) below: